Some ten thousand Indians are stranded in Saudi Arabia. General V.K. Singh, Minister of State for External Affairs, has left for Saudi Arabia, raising hopes that he may do something for them. The Indian government has confirmed that 7,700 Indian workers were affected by widespread unemployment and are in dire need of exit visas..

Minister of State for external affairs, Mr. M J Akbar  had earlier announced that the Indian Ministry in Riyadh had received assurances on “exit visa” for workers. This assurance from Saudi Arabia on dues and exit visas is significant as earlier, on Monday,

The final assessment came two days after External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj declared that over 10,000 Indian citizens were facing hardship in Saudi Arabia. The Minister described the situation in Kuwait as “manageable” as reported by an English Daily.

Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Vikas Swarup stated that, the information about each worker, about his total service, pending salary, desire to exit/continue/transfer is being collected separately.

The ministry committee visited six camps yesterday in Riyadh. A team of the ministry is separately working in Dammam. This team yesterday met the labour officials to complete procedures related to the protection of legal dues of the workers, once they leave on final exit.

Mr Swarup said “Gen. Singh will carry out an assessment to find out how many of those retrenched want to return to India and that will determine the future course of action,

After a meeting between the Ministers of State M.J. Akbar and Dr. Saud Bin Mohammed Al Sati, the MEA’s stated that Saudi Arabia’s negotiated here.

Mr. Akbar tweeted after the meeting “Glad to receive support and assurances from Saudi government to resolve all outstanding issues, including that of our Indian labourers”.

(prepared from media sources by Seema Kumari)

  labour, Saudi Arabia